Super Fun Rapid-Fire – Karan Johar With Sadhguru

Ready for a blend of wit and wisdom? Sadhguru’s quick responses to Karan Johar’s rapid-fire questions will leave you both chuckling and contemplating.

Questioner: Namaskaram Sadhguru, Could you tell us about the path of Bhairagini Maa and what "Bhairagini" means? And how is it different from Brahmacharya?

Sadhguru: Raga means color. In a way, "Bhairagini" means one who has become the color of the Devi. Brahmacharya is to become vairagya - that means "colorless." In the English language, the word "colorless" has a negative connotation, but it also means "that which is transparent." So, a Brahmachari is looking at how to get into a state of vairagya, to make life transparent, where clarity is the ultimate goal - clarity which will see through life and death. A Bhairagini is like the moon; the moon is not shining by itself, but in reflection of the sun. The sun is powering the moon, but still, most people enjoy the moon than the sun. They will look up at the moon; it is more approachable, it has more variety and looks different every day. It has twenty- eight versions. The sun is the same every day - day in and day out.

These are two different paths. Until now, we have not focused on the path of Bhairagini much, we just have about half a dozen who are in the temple, but more could go into this as a path - not just to maintain and conduct the temple processes. It is just that Isha has a brand and image problem; we do not want too many people wearing red and walking around. It is not about what people will think about us, but for the effectiveness of what we are doing, image is important. In many ways though, we have crossed the time where we have to be worried about our image in the world. In the coming one or two years, more people could go on this path. It is a beautiful path if you give yourself totally. If you try to analyze it logically, you will go mad, but if you give yourself, you will be in an ecstatic and beautiful state.

So, for those of you who are proud that you have a big heart and no brain, it is a very good path to walk. Or, if your brain is subtle enough to go beyond the rudimentary logic of what is black and white, right and wrong, if your intelligence can slip beyond this and look at life, then it is a beautiful path. It takes a certain subtlety of intelligence to be able to look beyond logic in a logical way, otherwise logic will tell you this okay, this is not okay, this is in, this is out. Devi is both "in-out" and if you give yourself as a Bhairagini or otherwise - it is a different mode of energy completely. Dhyanalinga is not like that; he is the same every day - reliable. But she is going on in her own way. I live in her backyard, so I know.

The path of a Bhairagini means to take the color of the Devi, not just in clothes, but in every way. Your blood is anyway red, your head should also become red, everything should become red within you. You don't retain anything of yourself. But should I lose myself? If you want to find something worthwhile in your life, you have to lose yourself; there is no other way. If you are trying to preserve the petty personality of who you are, then all the best. Right until the last days, the same issues will go on endlessly, believe me. I want you to look back and see - you may be in different atmospheres, but the struggle is the same, the problems are the same within the mindscape. The atmosphere might have changed, the content might have changed, but the fundamental has not changed and believe me, many people die like this.

Just to satisfy the urge of food and the urge to reproduce - an entire life will go. You can glorify it and romanticize it, but please understand, that is how it will go. I will not go on repeating this to you, I have said this enough times. For those of you who have a working brain, invest in something. I am saying that from my experience of life, the way I searched and struggled to know, this is coming too bloody easy for you. Yes! So, if you want to become a Bhairagini, it is a wonderful way to be. As everything else in Isha, I have not paid enough attention to them yet. I plan to shut down travel and these things will happen. Then you will start to wonder...when will Sadhguru travel again?

That which is always pleasant if we find that then only we can also be pleasant irrespective of what is happening around us.

As we are that but we feel we are the part of situations around. If we continue feeling like that then other situations will also impact us in some way or the other. When the impacts are manageable we anyway try to manage, otherwise we have to try to rise beyond the situations. To find out where we truly belong. Not in the midst of situations but above that.

In fact situations are manifestations of that what we truly are. Mind identifies with a little among them and that manifests a identity by itself. Through the whole process the thread remains as strong as it could be of the core. Hence, laying the path open for us always to come back home.

Even sitting at the home all the imaginations happen. But, we get so lost in the imagination that we can't notice that we are already at home as always.

Q: In many cases you have said to your disciples, "I can only show you the path. I cannot liberate you." Does that mean you will not dissolve their karma?

Sadhguru: I am not talking about death when I talk to you about these things. I am talking about your present life so that you can live this life fruitfully. Do not wait for me to pull the plug, living a stupid life until then. I am teaching you practices and asking you to take your life into your hands so that you live gracefully and sensibly. Take care of your own life, work towards realization so that you live an elevated life here.

Those who have given themselves totally to me, even for a single moment, they do not have to worry about their liberation. Liberation is assured. To live gracefully or not, that is not assured. That is something that you have to earn. There is no other way.

Sadhguru has said many times before how we need a global anthem that pays respect to all life on Earth. I've experienced personally how limited my own identity has been crafted growing up without tending to it at all, clinging onto Indian and American nationalism, the scientific community, and the city I live in...all of this had been done unconsciously without much care and attention.

Recently, I've taken the steps to go out of my way and learn about other countries, their economies, their successes, their history to build a connection with them. I feel a lot more balance in my mind. I've been reading about Angkor Wat, a structure in the Khmer Empire in present day Cambodia, Georgia, the people that went to India and mixed with the Dravidian population, Uganda, which holds 10% of the world's species of birds and where Sadhguru started a school.

I feel that since I've been responding to other nations and people that I'm becoming a citizen of the world, instead of trapped in the borders of my country. I feel a lot of pride in those in other continents and want to keep continuing this exercise. Sadhguru says our eduction system is totally ignorant of this exercise, especially Western societies, which rely heavily on morality and goodness, which is a very superficial way to use the intellect.

Anyone who's crafting their identity, I'd be happy to hear your experience in the comments!

All the horrors of what a human being can be, says Sadhguru, including one’s jealousy, anger, hatred and more, can provide the perfect manure to produce beautiful, fragrant flowers.

Q: How do I free myself from the jealousy that arises within me?

Sadhguru: As long as you feel you are insufficient the way you are, the moment you see someone whom you think has more than you, you feel jealous. When you are very joyful, are you jealous? No. Only when you are unhappy, you are jealous. Do not worry about jealousy. If every moment of your life, your energies are bubbling with ecstasy, how will jealousy be there? Instead of trying to battle jealousy, it is better to work towards making your experience of life complete.

Jealousy is not Your Nature

Freedom will not happen by giving up anything because what is there to give up? Right now, there is no jealousy in you. Jealousy is not a part of your nature. Now and then you create it. If you had created it because you wanted it, then it is your joy. If you are happy in anger, fear and jealousy, create them. But that is not so, they are not happy experiences for you. So, why have you created them? You create them because you do not have the necessary awareness within yourself.

If you really want to be free, first and foremost, you should understand where your bondage is – what you are identified with. The moment you are identified, you are in confrontation with existence. The whole spiritual process is to dis-identify you, so that you are no longer in conflict with existence. You are just experiencing everything the way it is, not trying to label it this way or that way, or trying to make a divine or devil out of it.

Turning Filth into Fragrance

If you use the horror of who you are as manure, the beauty of who you could be, could flower. What is this “horror,” and what does it mean? When you find a person horribly prejudiced and jealous, angry, hateful and fearful, that is the horror of what a human being can be.

These days people talk a lot about organic vegetables. What it means is that you like vegetables nourished by shit, not by fertilizer coming from a bag! Somewhere, you understand that this is what produces the best kind of flowers, fruits or vegetables – it is the best manure.

This is the logic of life. This is something you need to understand, as symbolism and a psychological tool, and also spiritually. The simple logic of your mind says that if you want to produce good flowers in the garden, put a lot of flowers into the soil, and more beautiful flowers will come out of it. That is not how existence works. That is logical, but existence is not logical. The soil demands stinking waste, not fragrant flowers. Stinking filth is not just okay, that is what the soil demands. If you put it to the root, wonderfully fragrant flowers will come out of it. This is the way the existence is working.

In Tune With Your Own Nature

All these horrors which make you into a horror – your anger, hatred, jealousy, prejudices – please see with how much intensity they happen within you. If only meditation happened with that much intensity, wouldn’t it be wonderful? Wouldn’t you be going places? Definitely you would.

All the things which make a human being into a horror travel on the basic vehicle of intensity. If your anger, fear or jealousy were weak, it would not mean anything. When they burn within you, that is when they are something. And they always burn within you with great intensity.

One element of spirituality is there with you, the only question is to learn how to make use of it. If you use the filth and apply it to the root, it is good. If you smear it on your face, it is not good. If you do not have this awareness, you will try to apply fragrance to the roots and may kill the plant. You need to apply filth, not fragrance. That is how the whole world works, and that is how you should also work.

Fire, not Smoke

Do not try to work on the byproducts. You feel you are not sufficient simply because you are not well within yourself. Anybody who is not feeling blissful is actually ill. Maybe you are in a state of socially accepted wellbeing – because the majority of people are with you, and this is a democracy – but you are ill in terms of life. No attempt has been made to look at yourself carefully and understand that the seat of your experience is within you. If the seat of your experience is within you, and you have to decide and manage how well you live here, the first thing is to turn inward and look at the nature of who you are.

If that does not happen, your wellbeing is accidental. When your wellbeing is accidental, jealousy, hatred, and insecurity are a natural part of your life. It is like we are burning something and there is smoke. Do not battle with the smoke. You have to battle with the fire.

Editor's Note: This is an excerpt from Sadhguru’s 2-in-1 book “Emotion: The Juice of Life & Relationships: Bond or Bondage”, available on Flipkart and Amazon.

Sadhguru often speaks about moving from belief to seeking. But how do you apply this when your parents are deeply conditioned by superstitions and traditions and aren't open to questioning them? How can you encourage them to think?

I've noticed that my body feels wobbly when I walk. I tend to sway from side to side, bump into people unintentionally, and move around a lot without realizing it. Even in videos, I notice a lack of steadiness in my movements.

Which Hatha Yoga practices can help me develop better balance, coordination, and physical stability?

I want to continue doing Devi Sadhana for rest of my life. Currently I am practicing Bhuta shudhhi, 3 devi Stutis and 12 min Achala Arpanam . It takes me almost 1 hour to complete all the practices and it is a little hectic for me but still I have started feeling that 3 devi Stutis is not enough. Should I gradually increase it to 11 times and Achala Arpanam 21 mins? Please guide me....

Sorry if I got the quote wrong, i wrote it from memory.

Does this mean life is just going to be suffering after Samyama? 😅😭

Brahma the creator. I enjoy studying theology which is the scientific study of religion.

Edit: its the Snake ring and wearing it on left ring finger with the head up side

I did shambhavi mahaamudra continued from 9 march to 13 october. I didn't do it since then . I had horse throat and nausea . So I didn't do it . And since then stopped . It's been great .

This is so relatable. This happens with me all the time. Mind gets motivated and demotivated. Maybe that's the way of it's functioning.

Clarity sets us free from this circle. By making us remembering we are not of mind but beyond it.

Then motivation or demotivation just happens like two processes in the mind. We remain free. As we are.

Maybe these are different manifestations of mind itself. Which in turn is nothing but the same reality what we are.

Clarity makes us available to that reality or gives us the realisation of we being that reality itself.

A lot of times, Sadhguru talks about enhancing one's perception, and then comes expression.

These days, social media is so full of all kinds of things that you hardly see people perceiving something first and then expressing it. Most people want to express themselves because they want to grow their social media following, and for that, one has to keep creating content.

Literally, take any topic and blabber something about it. Whatever feels right, people talk about it freely, without any sense of hesitation.

Of course, there's a fan following for everything. It's an unfortunate reality.

To perceive something, one must first step back and become silent. We often see yogis sitting with their eyes closed because they want to perceive first.

To perceive something, and more importantly, to be able to see things the way they are, takes a lot of work.

But people on social media seem to have neither done the necessary inner work nor have any hesitation before expressing themselves. At least if they had some hesitation before expressing themselves, they might do a lot of good to the world by taking the time to look at things more deeply.

Unfortunately, even that hesitation seems to be missing.

Sadhguru answers a question on staying peaceful and joyful even in the face of adversity.

Questioner: When I do my meditation, everything is peaceful and quiet and I feel like I am getting somewhere. But the real test comes when there is adversity and I forget everything and again go back to the same old way of dealing with things. I feel that my practices have started making a mark but when something happens, I go back to the same old ways.

Sadhguru: You already repeated this twice, “I go back.” What does going back mean? It means that an agitated way of existence is your original nature, isn’t it? Is that your original nature?

Questioner: Yes.

Sadhguru: Then why do you want to lose it?

Questioner: No. By “original”, I mean that is the way we have been dealing with it all our lives.

Sadhguru: If we are so identified with that agitated way, how can we lose it? If you were to say, “I was very peaceful during the practice but when adversity happens, I am going away,” that would be better, isn’t it? Not just better, it is most essential to see, “I am going away from my original nature.” Then you will naturally want to come back to who you are. But you are clearly telling yourself, “My original nature is agitation, my fancy yoga nature is peacefulness. So, naturally I go back to my original nature.” Isn’t it natural to go back home.

You must change this within yourself. Right now, the way you think is the way you become. The whole mess of your mind can be changed just by the way you think. When you say, “My original nature is agitation,” it is trying to establish itself. If you see “My original nature is peace but I have lost it,” then you will naturally want to go back to your original nature.

Your Original Nature

Which is your original nature? This is not my teaching. You tell me, what is your original nature? Or if you do not know what this “original nature” stuff is, at least tell me, when you were a child, were you agitated or were you peaceful and joyful? If we can’t go back to what is really our original, essential nature, shall we at least go back to square one? Shall we start the game from there? At least become how you were when you were five years of age. That much peace and joy must be there.

That’s not a great amount. A lot of people talk as if becoming a child is the highest thing in the world. No. It took so much effort to become an adult. Becoming a child is not the highest thing. For those who have completely distorted and destroyed themselves, we say at least go back to square one. Start there at least. Don’t fall off the board.

So, don’t keep telling yourself that whatever you experienced during meditation is one fanciful moment that you somehow achieved. It is not an achievement. That is the way you are every moment of your life if you don’t mess yourself. Is that the reality? Is your messed up situation your original nature or is your original nature simply the way you are when nothing is messing you? Which is at least closer to your original nature? Un-messed, isn’t it?

Look back and see what is the most peaceful and joyful moment you have known in your life. Let’s start from there. Let us see that as your original nature right now. It is not, but at least let us mentally assume that, “That is the way I am, but for some reason, I have gotten lost.” Once you see that you are lost, everything in you will want to find a way back.

The Right Input

Please understand how your mind functions. If you say something to it in a certain way, if you put a wrong input, the whole energy of the mind starts functioning in that particular way. There are so many people on the planet whose lives have been absolutely poisoned simply because of a wrong thought that they identified themselves with. I would say almost the whole world is in this condition. They identified themselves with a particular type of thinking; these identifications generally happen when they are very young and certain things are dominant, and now you can’t think beyond it.

Suppose I were to take away all the male and female hormones from your body. I am not talking about the physiological aspect, but in your attitude and the way you look at your life, do you know how you would become in three days’ time? You would definitely become like a completely carefree child. You will not constantly be aware of your body parts. You would sit, walk and exist in a completely different way.

This is how just a little bit of chemical change that happened in the physiology to serve a particular purpose of nature has distorted your whole perception of life. This is not the only thing. There are a million other things like this. Whatever you identify with, that completely distorts your perception of life. The whole of Inner Engineering is to set the mind in the right perspective so that your limited identifications are taken away mentally, and your energy is unchained from its present bondages.

This bondage will not be completely released just because of this, but the first step towards that has been taken if you unchain yourself from those little identifications that you have taken on. There is a whole lot of karmic structure that will take its time, but if you do not set this process going, you will keep building that, not wearing it out. If you take away your strong identifications with limited things around you, then you have set up the basic process of dissolution of karmic structure.

I am no longer seeing them as a tragedy, I see them as Kailashi!

HHMD !

Ever since I started mediating with MoM and later done IE I have experienced a surge in clarity. Over time my old attachments and also my demons have fallen off. What I'm left with is a desire for a very simple and a humble way to be. It has also made me realise what I need the most in life and that is the only thing that is on my mind now. That thought or idea is with me all day and night. That state I'm in right is the closest thing that I can call a devotion which I'm normally indifferent to as it normally appears as make-believe thing to me.

Am I going crazy or is it a part of being on a spiritual path?

In this excerpt of “In Conversation with the Mystic”, Kavitha Kalvakuntla, Member of Parliament from Telangana, probes Sadhguru about magic, men’s perspectives towards women, and the role of epic stories in molding this perspective.

Kavitha: Sadhguru ji, I have watched many of your interviews, did a little bit of homework before I came here, but anyway I will definitely start from a basic question, which not only me but many people would probably want to understand. When you say you are a mystic, can you also do some magic?

Sadhguru: The greatest problem that humanity is facing and suffering is that they are so absolutely involved and enamored and overwhelmed with their own psychological drama that they are completely missing the magic of creation that is happening everywhere. The psychological drama, your own thought and emotion has become so big, and the physiological drama, your own body, takes a certain amount of space. Because of this drama, the entire existence has gone somewhere else. If you pay enough attention, every day there is magic all over the place. Mud has become a flower. The filth has become fragrance. Is this not magic? It is happening every day, everywhere.

But most people’s idea of magic is that I should pull out a pigeon from my pocket right now. If I do this, you will have a bird, and I will have a shitty pocket! That is all that happens.

Kavitha: Well, I was really hoping that you could do something so wonderful and magical that all the men in this world would forever be changed about their perspective towards women.

Sadhguru: This is why the government has funded the ISRO project to Mars, so that we can live on two separate planets! Yes, unfortunately, there have been long periods of exploitation of women across the world and even in this country. But there was a time when, in this country, women were not exploited by any means. They lived fabulous lives. You just look back and see. For example, we do not have a full picture, but in whatever remnants we have of stories like Ramayana or Mahabharat, do you see women going around in veils? Do you see women hiding? No. The queen sat with the king in public.

However, you must understand, we have faced a little over a thousand years of invasions. When invasions happen, they not only go for your gold, they also go for your wives and your daughters. So, hiding them somewhere, in granaries, among sacks of grain, became a normal thing. When a thousand years of continuous invasions happened, the risk of keeping a woman out became a very wrong thing to do. Unfortunately, that is still continuing.

I think we will break through in the coming generation. I think we already are in a big way. We are only the second generation after Independence. Do not be in too much of a rush and make this one species into two. Homo sapiens is a single species. Unfortunately, in reaction to the past exploitation, we are trying to create two species. This is not going to work well, either for men or for women in the future. It is very important that the changes we make in our society are not in reaction to the wrong things that have happened in the past. What is the right thing we want in future? We must focus on that consciously, rather than simply reacting.

Kavitha: So, what Sadhguru ji is basically saying is, there is no magic. It is only logic to work towards…

Sadhguru: No, no, no, there is magic also. The logic that we are employing is very rudimentary. This is the significance of this culture, where we took logic to a point where it became an access to the mystical and the magical. We have not seen it as logic versus magic. We saw that a stable, logical foundation is a must for continued, sustained magic to happen in our life. Otherwise, your magic will just be a flash in the pan. It will not continue. If your logic is well established and you take it to a certain height, then you can make your life magical every moment. For this to happen, you should not think with the fundamental logic about who is a man, who is a woman. Both of us are here because a man and woman came together. Or do you still believe in the magic that somebody dropped you from heaven?

First of all, grading everything by economic standards is a serious mistake. If “How much can you earn? How much can you provide?” is the only standard of wellbeing, then believe me, you may have women in the world, but you will kill the feminine totally. Today, if a woman wants to be successful in the world, she needs to act like a man. This is slavery of the worst kind. It is very important we have feminine in equal proportions as masculine to make this world and our lives beautiful.

Our idea of success has become so rudimentary – “How much money have you got?” If you do this, you will kill the feminine totally because this is a gross world. You will bring marketplace into your mind and into your home. This is happening in the Western societies. When they are getting married itself, they are making a contract – “When we get divorced, who gets what?” How much ugliness do you want in your life? How can two people be woven into one if you are making calculations like this? So, do not take the marketplace home. This is what will happen if you make your standard of life purely economic.

Kavitha: Agreed. Since you have mentioned Mahabharat, Ramayan and all these scriptures…

Sadhguru: If I can correct that – we should not misunderstand what is a scripture and what is a very organic way of writing our history. An epic is a historical document written in a lively form so that it is relevant to you all the time. Right now, the Western way of writing history is like this, “This king came. He killed so many people. He did this. He did that. He died. And next one came. He did this. He did that. He died.” What are you going to do with this? If a thousand years ago, somebody lived or died, what does it matter to you? But, when you read Ramayan or Mahabharat, these are live stories, so that you can relate to them even today. This is genuinely learning from the past. The basis of being human is that we can learn from someone else’s experience. All the nonsense need not happen to us. Maybe it happened 5000 years ago, but we can still correct our lives by looking at what happened to them.

Kavitha: When you have been learning from the Ramayan and Mahabharat and many more stories for generations, how do we expect the current Indian men to not treat his wife like Sita? You know, he can simply leave her in the forest because somebody says something. How do you unlearn these things that we have learned all our life? How do you hit the refresh button and start all over again by looking at a woman as a respectable figure? How do we teach this to our children?

Sadhguru: Let me put it in the right perspective. Rama walked all the way south, fought a battle, burned down a city to get back his wife. That is not a small thing.

Kavitha: But, then he again gave her an agni-pariksha. He did not trust his wife.

Sadhguru: We are taking these words literally. Agni-pariksha did not mean somebody has to enter the fire. It meant she was put through some tests – of course, because he was the king. Everybody is looking at him as an idol. How you behave and what you do is very important because the entire nation’s life depends on you. So, Rama was setting an example in those days. Sita was pregnant, his sons were inside. For a king, his sons are important. In spite of that, he sends her to the jungle because otherwise, there would be disruption in the country. Are you seeing this as a negative thing? I think we need such prime ministers and leaders in this country, that no matter what, for the wellbeing of the nation, they will do what is needed.

Kavitha: Agreed, a leader has to sacrifice, no doubt. We will go to any length to sacrifice and send a message to the people. But this particular message is taken so literally by other people that they treat their wives like that. How relevant is it to take an example from the leader he is and follow that, even adapt it to the modern times?

Sadhguru: Today, if we send you to a forest, that is called a safari holiday. I think this is being taken very literally. When I was in Nellore, I was speaking to a large group of over 7000 school students. One fourteen-year-old girl stands up and asks, “Sadhguru, they are saying that Rama walked all the way from Ayodhya to Sri Lanka. Is it practical or is it just a story?” Then I asked the same question, “You are a young girl right now. You will grow up and find a man. Do you want that kind of a man who, if you get lost, no matter what, he will follow you and find you, or do you want a man who will find local solutions for himself because it is not practical?” Even this little girl knows what kind of man she wants.

To misunderstand any event, you are always free, but to understand it is your business, isn't it? And making judgments today on life that happened 5000-6000 years ago, from our standards here, is completely off.

Kavitha: Yes, that is the problem. So we do not have to literally take the message from all these epics, but move on.

Sadhguru: That is why I corrected that. It is not a scripture. It is only a historical document. It is for us to learn, not for us to misinterpret.

Editor's Note: Mahabharat – Saga Non-pareil is an exploration of the phenomenal epic through the eyes of a mystic. Read now!